Re: Dummy streams: eating std::endl?

From:
Thomas Maeder <maeder@glue.ch>
Newsgroups:
comp.lang.c++.moderated
Date:
30 Sep 2006 10:55:20 -0400
Message-ID:
<m2ven5pvv4.fsf@glue.ch>
lindahlb@hotmail.com writes:

#include <iostream>


std::endl is declared in the header <ostream>, which is not
necessarily pulled in by <iostream>.

using namespace std;

struct Ignore_Stream
{
#if 1
  template<typename T>
  Ignore_Stream operator<<(T) const;
#else
  template<typename Char, typename Traits>
  Ignore_Stream operator<<(basic_ostream<Char,Traits> &
(*)(basic_ostream<Char,Traits> &)) const;
#endif
};

int main(int argc, char * argv[])
{
  Ignore_Stream() << endl;
  return 0;
}

For both definitions, g++ complains about the above:
error: no match for 'operator<<' in 'Ignore_Stream() << std::endl'

Why? Is this a non-conformance problem, or is this behavior expected?
And how can I get the above to eat std::endl?


The problem is that std::endl is a function template, with two
typename parameters like the second version of the operator<< member
template in your code above.

When we write

std::cout << std::endl;

, std::endl is specialized so as to fit the appropriate overload of
operator<< for std::cout, i.e. for Char==char and
Traits==std::char_traits<char>.

When you write

Ignore_Stream() << endl;

, however, the compiler doesn't know which character type you want
std::endl and operator<< to be specialized for.

If Ignore_Stream commits itself to a character type, e.g.:

struct Ignore_Stream
{
    Ignore_Stream
    operator<<(std::basic_ostream<char,std::char_traits<char> > &
               (*)(std::basic_ostream<char,std::char_traits<char> > &));
};

, the statement

Ignore_Stream() << endl;

will be accepted.

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